Bears HC Ben Johnson’s next coaching point with QB Caleb Williams is what can take his offense to a dangerous level
The explosives are so close to coming together.
Nothing is more important for the Chicago Bears this season than the development of quarterback Caleb Williams in head coach Ben Johnson’s offense, and while it’s not going to be a linear process, we’re starting to see continued improvements week-to-week.
Earlier in the season, the main coaching points for Williams involved processing the reads on a given and hitting his checkdowns when the primary reads aren’t there. The other coaching point involved using his legs to bail the unit out of bad looks and avoiding negative plays.
Williams has excelled in those two areas the last few weeks, and especially on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings and the exotic defense of Brian Flores. It was impressive stuff, even if the box score didn’t showcase a strong game from #18.
Williams avoided some potential key plays, through the ball away to keep the offense on schedule, and was smart when it came to hitting his checkdowns to counter against the blitzes. What Williams struggled with in Week 11 is the next coaching point that can really make this offense deadly.
Caleb Williams struggled hitting on the deep explosive opportunities in Week 11
“We sat and we watched the tape and we had a couple opportunities there to really get some big plays potentially down the field, and we didn’t capitalize on those,” Johnson told reporters on Monday. “Those are a couple that he’d like to have back.”
Even going back to last season, Williams struggled when it came to hitting the deep ball and it has nothing to do with his arm strength, it’s more so the accuracy on deep passes and finding the right touch on the football. This season, Williams’ completion percentage of 41.0 on passes of 15+ air yards ranks 26th among quarterbacks with 10+ such attempts while having a 74.0 catchable percentage.
Williams had two key misses early in the game down the field, both of which game on third down. The first one missed wide receiver Rome Odunze by a “foot or two” according to Johnson and the second one was way over the head of wide receiver DJ Moore.
“Sometimes that happens early in the game when you take a deep shot,” Johnson added. “You’re not quite in a rhythm yet and that can get away from you. So, I wasn’t too terribly disappointed by it. The more time on task we have on that, the more connections we’ll get.”
Everything else is humming for this Bears’ offense. The run game with D’Andre Swift and Kyle Monangai is working perfectly to establish the the ground work. Williams is automatic with the intermediate throws and improving with the checkdowns. And guys are picking up hidden yards by being physical on every play.
The only thing missing are these explosives and it’s drive killing when the missed opportunities come on third-down. Hopefully this area of the attack is something Johnson and Williams can focus more on this week and lead to successful results. If so, this offense is going to be peaking at the right time.
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